MacTech Blog

Oct 06

ON World: LPWAN Services Will Reach $75 Billion by 2020

At a pivotal time for the Internet of Things, Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies are blindsiding existing wireless sensor network technologies with multi-kilometer network ranges, multi-year battery lifetimes and cloud-integrated network stacks, according to a recently published report by global IoT research firm ON World (www.onworld.com).

"After a decade of technology advances such as low power wireless radios, MEMS and cloud platforms, LPWANs represent a new gold rush for Internet of Things investors and developers," says Mareca Hatler, ON World's research director. "The simplicity and accessibility of LPWANs is drawing new entrants and innovative IoT services that will contribute billions of dollars to the global economy.”

ON World's interviews and surveys with 150+ IoT market leaders found that 1-in- 3 are planning or currently offer LPWAN products and services with the majority of these...

End-user spending for the worldwide virtual personal assistant (VPA)-enabled wireless speaker market will reach $2.1 billion by 2020, up from $360 million in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). By 2020, 3.3% of global households are forecast to have adopted a VPA-enabled wireless speaker.

Recently, Apple rolled out its newest operating system updates – iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. The new updates brought about a lot of exciting new features and upgrades. Apple’s mobile and Mac software is now more integrated: for example, Siri assistant has arrived on the computer. Users are also excited about the Universal Clipboard that allows to choose photos from iPhone and directly paste them on a computer.

However, there might be some frustrating news for those who had VPN apps installed on their Mac or iPhone. The latest version of the software doesn’t support point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) connections, meaning that a VPN that is using PPTP protocol will no longer work with devices that have iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.

PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) was one of the first security protocols introduced. However, it is considered very weak nowadays and therefore PPTP isn’t a recommended option anymore. Most likely, this was the reason for...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the value of domestic money transfers, including operator money and social media money services, will reach $520 billion in mobile transactions by 2018, up nearly 200% from an estimated $178 billion last year.

According to the new research by 2018 the share of domestic money transfer services, by mobile transaction values are forecast to be: domestic P2P: 45%; Cash-In: 21%; Cash-Out: 17%; Bulk Disbursement (G2P): 14%; and Domestic Airtime Top-Up: 2%. Typically P2P (person to person) domestic transfers show higher usage in developing markets, including M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money and MTN Mobile Money, supplemented by users making social transfers in developed markets via services such as Venmo and WeChat.

However, the bulk of activity is currently occurring via WeChat and Alipay within China, with growth...

The Spy described himself last month as "still breathing.” In view of the worst cold to afflict him in many years, that is not a quality statement, just a bare fact. Good thing he isn't trying to dictate this column.

VCON-41 was this past weekend (why he delayed writing this) and the Spy was scheduled for four panels and a reading. After struggling through Friday afternoon and evening, he awoke Saturday with no voice at all, and had to cancel out of two panels plus a reading of his work on Saturday.

Too bad, because Friday night's panel on Minions (that he moderated) had a large and vigorously opinionated audience and provoked extensive discussions back-and-forth with the panel--the ideal outcome for such a venue. Some panelists and audience members were convinced that the very word "minion" is pejorative, so only applies to the flunkies of the Big Bad. The Spy differs--the protagonist may have minions too, not just sidekicks...

Technavio (www.technavio.com) analysts forecast that the global smart wearable lifestyle devices and services market will grow immensely and post a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of almost 16% during the forecast period of 2016-2020

The smart wearable lifestyle services market in North America was valued at $0.84 billion in 2015 and will reach $2.37 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 23.05%, according to the research group. The market is driven by the early adoption of wearable devices in these regions. The key revenue contributors of this region are US, Canada, and Mexico.

The largest contributor to the market in this region is the U.S. because of the early adoption of lifestyle devices among adults and youth. The key reason for this high adoption is affordability. The decline in the average selling price of wearable devices will boost the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Connected car production is growing rapidly in both mature and emerging automobile markets, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The production of new automobiles equipped with data connectivity, either through a built-in communications module or by a tether to a mobile device, is forecast to reach 12.4 million in 2016 and increase to 61 million in 2020, notes the research group.

Gartner defines the connected car as an automobile that is capable of bidirectional wireless communication with an external network for the purpose of delivering digital content and services, transmitting telemetry data from the vehicle, enabling remote monitoring and control, or managing in-vehicle systems.

"The connected vehicle is the foundation for fundamental opportunities and disruptions in the automotive industry and many other vertical industries," said James Hines, research director at...

With the convergence of devices, bots, things and people, organizations will need to master two dimensions of mobility, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) CIOs and IT leaders will need to excel at mainstream mobility and to prepare for the post-app era, adds the research group.

"The future of mobile will provide ubiquitous services delivered anywhere, by any person or thing, to any person or thing," said David Willis vice president and analyst at Gartner. "While users are constantly looking for new and compelling app experiences, the importance of apps in delivering services will diminish and the emergence of virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and bots will replace some of the functions performed by apps today. Alternative approaches to interaction and service delivery will arise, and code will move from traditional mobile devices and apps to the cloud.”

It’s estimated that the global cybersecurity job postings is around one million and more than 200,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. alone were unfilled in 2015 which was up 74% over the previous five years. The cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $75 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020 according to recent industry reports and it is estimated that the global cybersecurity workforce will have 1.5 million jobs unfilled by 2019, according to Identity Management Institute (http://www.identitymanagementinstitute.org).

Cybersecurity is a new buzz name for computer and network security which has existed for many years. However, due to the increasing connectivity of many devices and networks, the computer security risk landscape is expanding and is frequently referred to as cybersecurity.

A new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com) report forecasts that the global peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) SSD market to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 33.24% during the period 2016-2020.

The report has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The research group says the need for managed service data centers will be a key driver for market growth. It is advantageous for an enterprise to operate a colocation facility rather than to build a data center. Data center colocation allows enterprises to rent computing storage, servers, and network. It enables minimal utilization of power and bandwidth and enhances the security of enterprise IT equipment.

Further, Research and Markets states that the lack of availability of constant low latency is a major challenge. Write latency can be...

Tripwire (www.tripwire.com), a provider of security and compliance solutions for enterprises and industrial organizations, has announced the results of a survey conducted on behalf of Tripwire by Dimensional Research.

The June survey assessed cyber security challenges associated with smart city technologies. Survey respondents included over 200 IT professionals working for state and local governments.

When asked if a cyber attack targeting critical city infrastructure posed a threat to public safety, 83% of the respondents said, “yes.” In addition, 78% percent of the respondents stated there would likely be a cyber attack against smart city services in 2016.

Smart cities use IT solutions to manage a wide range of city services, including smart grids, transportation, surveillance cameras, wastewater treatment and more. Navigant Research anticipates that global smart city technology revenue will...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the global value of contactless POS (point of sale) terminal transactions, conducted in-store via cards, mobile and wearables, will approach $500 billion annually by 2017. This is up from an estimated $321 billion this year.

However, the low value nature of contactless payments means that it will only represent just 5% of the total value of all POS transactions in 2017. According to the new research the surge in contactless-enabled POS terminals in 2015, allied to retailer obligations to card companies in many markets to ensure that all terminals will be contactless ready by 2020, is likely to prompt an upsurge in migration to contactless payment. For example, Visa announced more than 3.2 million contactless terminals in Europe as of April 2016, up 23% from 2.6 million at the end of April 2015.

As the race for self-driving cars accelerates, new data shows that 43% of U.S. consumers would buy or ride in autonomous vehicles (AV) if they were broadly available today, according to the survey released today by Altman Vilandrie & Company (http://www.altvil.com). However, the survey reveals widespread concerns about the safety of self-driving cars: 64% of consumers say they would not buy an AV because they believe AVs are dangerous.

As part of the survey, Altman Vilandrie & Company also interviewed more than 20 industry experts, including those in auto manufacturing, car technology and mobile communications, who on the whole are very bullish on the future of AVs. The survey comes as activity related to autonomous cars has reached an inflection point, with leading carmakers (Audi, GM, Tesla), technology titans (Google, Apple), numerous startups, and ride sharing companies like Uber announcing plans...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that global operator revenue loss from “grey route” A2P traffic will amount to $62 billion over the next 6six years, despite the increased deployment of firewalls and other security measures.

The research argued that in part the high levels of grey route traffic – essentially A2P messages masquerading as P2P (Person to Person) messages and delivered via non-interconnected routes – could be attributed by the scale of the price differential between A2P and P2P. It pointed out that the trend has become more pronounced as operators have offered high-volume, low cost SMS bundles to cope with the challenge of OTT (Over The Top) messaging services, with grey route traffic now accounting for more than 30% of all A2P messages.

According to the research, the typical cost of an A2P message using grey routes was often just 25% of a...

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that revenues from SVOD (subscription video on demand) services, such as Netflix and Amazon, are set to more than double from $14.6 billion this year, to $34.6 billion in 2021. Netflix now sees US subscriber numbers level with leading network providers DirecTV & Comcast (47 million and 47.7 million respectively).

Juniper’s latest research found that SVOD providers can expect to see substantial returns on their expansion and growth strategies, as more countries and markets move to this method of video consumption, in a continual move away from linear, scheduled TV.

Whilst SVOD continues to draw customers away from traditional providers, networks are now seeking to diversify and adapt through “cord shaving,” with services such as YouTube and Hulu seeking to offer some linear cable streaming as part of subscription packages...

The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 6.7% year over year in the second quarter of 2016 (2Q16), and increased 6.7% on a sequential basis.

According to new data from the IDC research group (www.idc.com), the enterprise segment grew 9.4% year over year in 2Q16, representing its strongest growth in over two years. The sustained growth observed so far in 2016 can be attributed to refresh cycles and the funding of digital transformation initiatives in many enterprises.

The 802.11ac standard has achieved market dominance and now accounts for 59.9% of dependent access point unit shipments and 77.4% of dependent access point revenues, representing a noticeably faster adoption rate from 802.11n than what we saw with the 802.11a/b/g to 802.11n transition several years ago.

Meanwhile, consumer WLAN market revenue saw growth for the first time since...

The report is based largely on an online survey 3C commissioned during July, 2016, which was presented to roughly 3,000 brand marketers across a variety of industries. Survey participants represent retail (29%), restaurants (21%), hospitality/tourism/travel (17%), financial services (14%), and a host of other industries as well.

In the second quarter of 2016, worldwide server revenue declined 0.8% year-over-year while shipments grew 2% from the second quarter of 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

There was some shuffling among the top vendors in the second quarter, as Dell moved into the top spot in shipments, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) remained the worldwide leader in server revenue, notes the research group.

"The second quarter of 2016 produced some continued growth on a global level compared with the first quarter, although there were some varied results regionally," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner.

All regions showed a decline in shipments except Asia/Pacific and North America, which posted growth of 5.6% and 3%, respectively. In terms of revenue, all regions except for Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe exhibited a decline. Asia/Pacific grew by 6.1% and Eastern Europe...

Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has released a report into the business attitudes towards and experiences of cyber security and cyber attacks in SMEs and enterprises. The research revealed that three quarters of companies feel they are currently secure, even though half of those businesses also reported having previously experienced a cyber attack.

Increasingly, businesses are moving critical infrastructure online, making them more vulnerable to digital threats. Yet, the study found that despite increased concern and spend on cyber security over the last year, there is a high degree of complacency, with few common practices in response to this threat. Overall, 86% of respondents believe they are doing enough to mitigate the impact of cyber attacks. Most respondents still think it’s enough to have the IT or security department involved in mitigating the effect of cyber attacks, with 33%...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the total value of Venture Capital (VC) investment into blockchain technologies and Bitcoin companies totaled $290 million in the first six months of the year, with more than 30 startups receiving funding in that time.

More than a third of all investment was accounted for by three companies: Circle, the social payment provider; Blockstream, the sidechain developer; and Digital Asset holdings, a distributed ledger solutions provider. The new research report highlights the increasing diversification of nascent blockchain deployments, with applications ranging from identity to asset management. It pinpoints the banking sector as being particularly proactive, with several banks having already adopted the Ripple blockchain protocol and others piloting competing solutions.

By 2020, 21 billion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be in use worldwide. Of these, close to 6% will be in use for industrial IoT applications.

However, IT organizations have issues identifying these devices and characterizing them as part of current network access policy, said Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) Infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders must therefore update their network access policy to seamlessly address the onslaught of IoT devices, adds the research group.

"Having embraced a bring-your-own-device strategy, organizations must now get employee devices on the enterprise network and start addressing the 21 billion IoT devices that we project will want access to the enterprise network," said Tim Zimmermann, research vice president at Gartner. "Whether a video surveillance camera for a parking lot, a motion detector in a conference room or the HVAC for the entire building, the...

By 2020, 250 million TV viewers around the world will be ready to watch shows using the latest technology known as High Dynamic Range (HDR).

According to a new report from Strategy Analytics’ Intelligent Home Group (www.strategyanalytics.com), annual worldwide sales of HDR-enabled TVs in 2020 will reach 58 million units, bringing the number of homes with at least one HDR-enabled TV to 107 million. Penetration of HDR TVs will reach nearly 25% of homes in the U.S.

High Dynamic Range is one of the most important components of Ultra HD TV, the new standard which is being introduced around the world. It improves TV pictures by increasing the range of colors and brightness. HDR programming has been launched by online video services such as Netflix and Amazon, and is expected to be introduced by leading broadcasters and pay TV companies over the next couple of years.

Ransomware is a malware that infects computers and restricts their access to files, often threatening permanent data destruction unless a ransom is paid. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) confirmed that in 2015, over $24 million was surrendered to attackers in approximately 2500 ransomware cases. This year, there has been a significant increase in phishing campaigns and ransomware attacks targeting various...

Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that machine learning algorithms used to enable more efficient ad bids over RTB (real-time bidding) networks will generate some $42 billion in annual ad spend by 2021, up from an estimated $3.5 billion in 2016.

Machine learning — a subset of AI — has arrived at a point where it is both accessible as well as affordable to a wide range of stakeholders. Juniper anticipates that the technology will eventually permeate into nearly all industries in the next five years.

In the case of the media industry, machine learning is being used to develop so-called “bots” and digital assistants, as well as maximize returns on digital advertising. In the case of the former, companies such as Facebook and Google are leading the drive, with the likes of Rocket Fuel and Datacratic developing innovative solutions for the latter use case.

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) shows that increased use of digital assistants, such as Siri and Cortana, on smart devices will provide new paid search opportunities in the coming years.

The research group forecasts that over $12 billion of ad spend per annum will be made through this rapidly growing medium by 2021, an increase of over 3,000% on estimated spend for 2016. The study found that, besides integration into devices like smartphones and PCs, assistants will be part of many home and automotive devices in future, creating new spaces for human-computer interaction.

These sectors will initially see the highest usage, paving the way for wider adoption of assistants towards the end of the 2010s, according to Juniper Research.
Improvements in artificial intelligence have led to a proliferation of programs, of which Siri, Google Now and Cortana are the best...

The smart home market continues to expand, with 47 million connected smart home devices shipped globally in 2015, according to IHS Markit (ihs.com). The market is projected to broaden at a compound annual growth rate of 60%, reaching 477 million devices in 2020, adds the research group.

The American region accounted for 62% of global shipments in 2015; however, Asia-Pacific will gain significant share over the next four years, coming into parity with the American market in 2020. The EMEA region will remain flat, holding steady at 20 percent of the global market for smart devices. This rapid growth will be primarily attributed to appliances and air conditioners, according to recent analysis from the IHS Markit Smart Home Intelligence Service.

“The smart home is organized into the following five primary categories: safety and security, climate control, consumer electronics, energy and water control, and lighting and controls,” said Blake Kozak, principal analyst, IHS...

The Spy, like everyone else still breathing, is always learning new things--or re-learning old ones--especially so as a new crowd of students (and many more old ones) is about to descend on campus.

El Capitan falls into both categories, for it has a few extremely annoying bugs that he has not had to deal with for several OS X iterations.

One of the worst is the tendency to forget it has ever heard of Bluetooth. The menu bar icon turns greyer and loses its three dots. Any attempt to do things bluetoothy results in an error message. So, one tries resetting the NVRAM (once called parameter RAM) at startup with the old four finger salute (holding down command-option-P-R keys all at once). No joy.

So he tried something more adventuresome--resetting the SMC (System Management Controller), also done at startup with the keys left shift-control-option, also used to correct errant fans gone wild. Best practice: hold for two...

New findings from Juniper Research claim that the value of digital and physical goods purchased through mobile “OS-Pay” platforms will increase by 15 times in the next two years. A combination of in-app purchases and website retail payments is projected to drive annual spend via Apple Pay and Android Pay to $8 billion in 2018, up from $540 million this year.

The new study found that the integration of OS-Pay into apps will prove to be a “no brainer” for developers looking to reduce buyer friction, where password entry on smartphones remains cumbersome. Staples, for example, has already reported that over 30% of its iOS app users make in-app purchases through Apple Pay. Meanwhile, despite the continued contraction of the consumer tablet market, more than 85% of remote goods payments are forecast to be made using mobile devices in 2021.

“It is clear that even in markets where PCs and laptops have a high installed base that the smartphone is playing an increasingly...

New data from International Data Corporation (IDC) finds that worldwide revenues for information technology products and services will grow from nearly $2.4 trillion in 2016 to more than $2.7 trillion in 2020. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3% for the 2015-2020 forecast period.

Among the trends in the forecast is the positive momentum displayed in big industries like financial services and manufacturing, where companies continue to invest in third Platform solutions (e.g. cloud, mobility, and big data) as part of their digital transformation efforts, according to IDC (www.idc.com). The telecommunications industry is forecast to remain relatively sluggish, although spending levels are expected to gradually improve compared to the past several years, according to the research group.

According to the latest market study released by Technavio (www.technavio.com), the global digital map market is expected to reach $5.57 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 14% during the forecast period.

This research group says, that over the years, the adoption of location-based application-enabled smartphones has gained popularity. Previously, mobile devices were merely used as communication devices. However, with the increasing functionalities and processing capabilities of smartphones and tablets, users are able to use their mobile devices to obtain real-time directions to nearby locations, weather forecasts, and traffic updates.

Since location-based advertising is cost-effective, many mobile advertisers are targeting smartphone users in their product and service marketing. All these location-based service applications and devices are built on digital maps,...

Wireless customers living in urban areas experience the highest number of overall network problems and have lower tolerance of those problems, according to the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Study—Volume 2. The finding underscores the importance of continued investment by carriers in urban areas as the use of 4G LTE compatible smartphones grows and customers expect faster data speeds.

A new study by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that revenue from smart audio hardware will more than triple over the next four years, rising from an estimated $1.4 billion this year to over $5.5 billion by 2020.

While the research group expects part of this to be driven by ear-based wearables like the Bragi Dash and HERE Active Listening, the category will be most successful in the smart home space, with Amazon Echo, Google Home and other unit-based smart audio devices vying for popularity as the next platform for smart devices. Juniper found that the reason for the dominance of home-based smart audio is two-fold: consumers are not yet willing to talk to machines in public, and also that smartphones can provide similar functions through simple earphones with a mic. These factors combine to limit the market for people who want a digital assistant device with them on-the-go.

APPSPIRE.me has released an infographic dubbed "iOS or Android: Which One for App Development?" that reveals insights to consider when choosing a platform for development. The infographic compares the positives and negatives of both iOS and Android development including development costs, user market, and return on investment.

The infographic lists over 15 pros and cons of development through iOS and Android. It also touches on the importance of target audience and also mentions the issues with fragmentation.

“Thirty-seven percent of mobile app owners are developing their app on both iOS and Android, and that number is continuing to grow," says Carson Barker, founder and CEO of APPSPIRE.me. "However, it is crucial to understand how differently iOS and Android are in developers' perspective. "Before development starts, it's important to research different developers to match what your specific goals are with your app. We wanted to give app owners a start on that...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that embedded SIM cards will increasingly dominate the M2M (Machine to Machine) space, accounting for more than 50% of connections by the end of the decade.
New Opportunities & Business Models

According to the new study, the introduction of the GSMA’s embedded specification is likely to fuel the opportunity for service providers to offer remote provisioning of SIM cards. The study claimed that this in turn would greatly enhance the capabilities of service providers to update and augment offerings and subscriptions.

Additionally, Juniper Research says that migration to OTA (Over The Air) provisioning would facilitate a range of new business models, potentially increasing the lifetime value of M2M subscription while also reducing costs. The report highlighted the increased benefits that embedded SIMs would offer to...

Free public Wi-Fi stats from American ITRC (Identity Theft Resource Center) show that 78.5% of people who connect to publically available Internet networks believe that using public Wi-Fi can lead to identity theft. Yet only 26.7% percent use VPN, the most reliable tool for personal online protection that encrypts all traffic between Internet and device into a secure tunnel.

Research shows that Wi-Fi user fears aren’t unfounded, since public Wi-Fi can be hacked into very easily. Hackers often position themselves as Wi-Fi hotspots and easily steal personal information of each individual that logs in. In addition, identity thieves have lately been using wireless sniffers, a software designed to intercept and decode data when it is transmitted over a network.

Anyone who is shopping online or doing online banking by using a wireless network is especially vulnerable to hacking attacks that can steal one’s credit card data or identity. There’s no lack of...

According to a new research report from the M2M/IoT analyst firm Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), the global third party Internet of Things (IoT) platform market increased 36% to € 610 million in 2015.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8 percent, revenues are forecasted to reach € 3.05 billion in 2021. There is a wide range of software platforms available, intended to reduce cost and development time for IoT solutions by offering standardized components that can be shared across many industry verticals to integrate devices, networks and applications.

Most IoT platforms available on the market today can be categorized as being a connectivity management platform, a device management platform or an application enablement platform, although there are many products that offer overlapping functionality or other unique features.

New data from Juniper Research has found that 4K OTT (over-the-top) content will finally see mass-market appeal, with adoption set to soar over the next five years.

The research group found that 4K OTT services will attract over 189 million unique users globally by 2021, up from just 2.3 million this year, driven by greater content availability and compatible devices. In the U.S., this means that 1 in 10 residents will be watching 4K online compared with just 1one in 500 this year. While connected TV will be the dominant channel, viewership will take place through a range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

The new research found that although YouTube, Netflix and Amazon already offer some 4K video, network providers have been waiting for a critical mass of content to become available before launching their own 4K offer. However, 2016 has seen roll-out of a number of new 4K offerings, such as the launch of the Sky Q 4K service in the UK, coupled with...

Worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach $81.6 billion in 2016, an increase of 7.9% over 2015, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

Consulting and IT outsourcing are currently the largest categories of spending on information security. Until the end of 2020, the highest growth is expected to come from security testing, IT outsourcing and data loss prevention (DLP), according to the research group.

Preventive security will continue to show strong growth, as many security practitioners continue to have a buying preference for preventive measures. However, solutions such as security information and event management (SIEM) and secure web gateways (SWGs) are evolving to support detection-and-response approaches. Gartner expects the SWG market will maintain its growth of 5 to 10 percent through 2020 as organizations focus on detection and...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the global value of contactless POS (point of sale) terminal transactions, conducted in-store via cards, mobile and wearables, will approach $500 billion annually by 2017; this is up from an estimated $321 billion this year.

However, the low value nature of contactless payments means that it will only represent just 5% of the total value of all POS transactions in 2017. According to the research group, the surge in contactless-enabled POS terminals in 2015, allied to retailer obligations to card companies in many markets to ensure that all terminals will be contactless ready by 2020, is likely to prompt an upsurge in migration to contactless payment. For example, Visa announced more than 3.2 million contactless terminals in Europe as of April 2016, up 23% from 2.6 million at the end of April 2015.

Survey findings released today from Ogilvy Media Influence's first-ever global survey of over 200 reporters and editors found that 72% of respondents agree that traditional media outlets are the most trusted news sources.

Carried out by Ogilvy Media Influence team members in 23 offices across North America, APAC and EMEA, the survey uncovered the growing importance of new platforms [54%] in managing newsrooms today.

"Our survey showed how the emergence of new platforms is the biggest trend effecting newsrooms, as consumers are increasingly reading news on apps, and social media platforms," said Jennifer Risi, managing director, Ogilvy Media Influence and Head of Media Relations. "The source of a news story still matters, especially in North America and EMEA, where traditional media outlets remain the most trusted. It will be key for PR professionals to adapt to new platforms (such as Snapchat) and find new ways to reach consumers in the places where they live and...

These findings are from MUSO's “Global Film & TV Piracy Market Insight Report 2016,” which saw the company analyze global traffic from 14,000 of the largest global piracy websites, comprising of over 141 billion visits to these sites, and across 200m measured devices.

Out of a total 78.49 billion film and television piracy site visits, 73.69% (57.84 billion) were visits to streaming sites, with 72.07% of visits via desktop devices, indicating consumption of infringing video content via mobile devices remains low. With over 12% (9.86...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com)p says 51% of U.S. broadband households find an IoT [Internet of Things] device that alerts them to smoke and fire highly appealing, and 41% find a device that alerts them to a water leak to be highly appealing.

The research group notes these smart home use cases would benefit insurance companies in both saving costs and adding value to their customers. lso, 38% of U.S. broadband households have very strong intentions to buy a smart home device in 2016.

"The insurance industry is quickly emerging as a key player in multiple smart home ecosystems," said Tom Kerber, director, Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. "The advanced detection and alert capabilities in smart home devices give insurance companies new and innovative ways to avoid risks and reduce fire or water damage. State Farm and Liberty Mutual have both...

The worldwide smart phone market grew modestly in the second quarter (Q2 2016) after a disappointing first quarter, according to the Canalys (www.canalys.com) research group.

Global shipments reached over 330 million units, with Samsung leading the market with shipments around 80 million units. A disappointing quarter a year ago led to favorable annual comparisons, while shipments were flat compared with Q1.

“The success of the Galaxy S7 together with a de-emphasis on the low end of its portfolio has led to a rise in handset ASP [average sales price],” says Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling. ‘“Samsung’s VR move has proved a wise one, with Gear VR bundles helping boost flagship handset sales.”

Apple shipped 40 million iPhones in Q2, a second consecutive annual decline in shipments.

The Technavio research group (www.technavio.com) forecasts that the Bluetooth speaker market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33% through 2020.

One of the major factors driving the sale of Bluetooth speakers globally is its ability to stream audio content wirelessly and easily. Modern devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets are equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity enabling impressive streaming of content, which is another driving factor supporting the growth of the Bluetooth speaker market.

“Bluetooth speakers offer a multitude of benefits making them popular among consumers. These devices need no wiring, consume less space when compared to home theaters, and run on batteries, thus making them suitable for outdoor purposes. They promise durability, hassle-free maintenance, and faster functionalities. All these factors are propelling the demand for Bluetooth speakers, which...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds that less than 5% of U.S. broadband households own a smart appliance such as a full-sized refrigerator, oven, dishwasher, or washer/dryer that can be monitored or controlled using a smartphone, tablet, or computer. However, the research shows 18% of consumers plan to buy a smart appliance in the next 12 months.

"Smart appliances have generated lots of attention, but market adoption is low due to low product availability, higher costs, and use cases that do not address customer needs," said Tom Kerber, director, Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. Purchase intentions of major appliances that can be connected to the Internet have grown from 9% in early 2014 to 18% in late 2015. However, the fact that actual adoption rates are far lower reflects a disconnect in the industry.”

New data from Parks Associates shows that 55% of OTT services in the U.S. have a subscription-only business model, such as Netflix or Hulu. In Canada, 50% of OTT services offer subscription-only services.

"There is an enormous amount of change going on in the OTT space right now, with new OTT video services entering the market each month. Many of these services have subscription as at least part of their business model," said Brett Sappington, senior director of Research, Parks Associates. "The recent ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is not likely to affect OTT video service business models. An OTT video service is unlikely to pursue legal action against someone who pays less than $10 per month unless they are doing something that disrupts the service.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that sharing passwords without the authorization of the system's owner is a crime that can be prosecuted under the U.S....

The Spy is late again with this column. His reason is the first encounter.

Some time back a tree trunk some seventy-five centimetres thick broke off a big leaf maple some 10 metres up and fell across his neighbour's barbed wire fence. Fortunately cattle no longer graze there, so nothing escaped. His tree, his responsibility, so after recovering from painkillers following dental surgery (another encounter with technology), he cranked up his Stihl 261 chain saw (yet another) and bucked the part that was over the fence.

Over the August long weekend he was moving some of that wood in preparation for stocking his woodshed when he had a close encounter with a band of hornets, several of which got into his hardhat and pin cushioned his scalp. Others chased him until out of the woods, the orchard and nearly back to the house, where he opened the door, asked wife Joyce (of 47 years) for Advil and water, fetched a chair to the driveway...

Global Risk Technologies (http://globalrisktechnologies.com) is warning consumers to avoid falling victim to identify theft and other types of fraud exposed by cybercriminals harvesting personal data unwittingly left on old smartphones when they are resold or recycled.

According to the latest estimates, 62% of Western Europeans (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) own a smartphone and users typically look to replace their device approximately every 20 months.1 However, evidence from AVAST shows that people often leave behind personal data and files, with half of the twenty random smartphones analysed leaving over 1,200 photos, over 300 emails/texts, the identities of two previous owners, three invoices, one work contract and one explicit video.

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that controller and 26% will have a home security system.

"Companies such as Samsung are beginning to embed smart home controllers into their consumer entertainment products, meaning consumers who buy a smart TV or smart appliance will be bringing these solutions into their homes, often without understanding the full extent of their capabilities," said Tom Kerber, Director, Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. "These smart home capabilities will come into play as consumers adopt other smart home devices, such as smart lighting and IP cameras."

Parks Associates research shows:

° Unit sales of IP cameras will reach nearly 6 million in 2016, including 3.2 million first-time sales.

° By 2017, the number of replacement or additional IP camera sales will exceed the number of first-time sales.

Despite acute awareness of the millions of dollars in annual costs, and the business risks posed by external internet threats, security leaders highlight the lack of staff expertise and technology as a key reason that these attacks are unchecked, according to results from a new Ponemon Institute study.

Seventy-nine percent of the IT and IT security practitioners polled indicated their defensive infrastructure to identify and mitigate those threats are either non-existent, ad hoc or inconsistently applied throughout the enterprise. The findings reveal that the companies represented in this research averaged more than one cyber attack per month and incurred annual costs of approximately $3.5 million because of these attacks.

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Fantastical 2.3.2 - Create calendar even...

Fantastical 2 is the Mac calendar you'll actually enjoy using. Creating an event with Fantastical is quick, easy, and fun:
Open Fantastical with a single click or keystroke
Type in your event... Read more

PCalc 4.4.4 - Full-featured scientific c...

PCalc is a full-featured, scriptable scientific calculator with support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations, as well as an RPN mode, programmable functions, and an extensive set of unit... Read more

Alfred 3.2.1 - Quick launcher for apps a...

Alfred is an award-winning productivity application for OS X. Alfred saves you time when you search for files online or on your Mac. Be more productive with hotkeys, keywords, and file actions at... Read more

OmniPlan 3.6 - Robust project management...

With OmniPlan, you can create logical, manageable project plans with Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, milestones, and critical paths. Break down the tasks needed to make your project a success,... Read more

Backblaze 4.2.0.990 - Online backup serv...

Backblaze is an online backup service designed from the ground-up for the Mac. With unlimited storage available for $5 per month, as well as a free 15-day trial, peace of mind is within reach with... Read more

AppDelete 4.3.1 - $7.99

AppDelete is an uninstaller that will remove not only applications but also widgets, preference panes, plugins, and screensavers along with their associated files. Without AppDelete these associated... Read more

Apple GarageBand 10.1.4 - Complete recor...

The new GarageBand is a whole music creation studio right inside your Mac -- complete with keyboard, synths, orchestral and percussion instruments, presets for guitar and voice, an entirely... Read more

Adobe Lightroom 6.8 - Import, develop, a...

Adobe Lightroom is available as part of Adobe Creative Cloud for as little as $9.99/month bundled with Photoshop CC as part of the photography package. Lightroom 6 is also available for purchase as a... Read more

iMazing 2.1.3 - Complete iOS device mana...

iMazing (was DiskAid) is the ultimate iOS device manager with capabilities far beyond what iTunes offers. With iMazing and your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod), you can:
Copy music to and from... Read more

Little Snitch 3.7.1 - Alerts you about o...

Little Snitch gives you control over your private outgoing data.
Track background activity
As soon as your computer connects to the Internet, applications often have permission to send any... Read more

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The best apps for your holiday gift exch...

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MyTona, based in the chilly Siberian city of Yakutsk, has brought a little festive fun to its hidden object game Seekers Notes: Hidden Mystery. The Christmas update introduces some new inhabitants to players, and with them a chance to win plenty of... | Read more »

PINE GROVE 1.0
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Category: Games
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Niantic teases new Pokémon announcement...

After rumors started swirling yesterday, it turns out there is an official Pokémon GO update on its way. We’ll find out what’s in store for us and our growing Pokémon collections tomorrow during the Starbucks event, but Niantic will be revealing... | Read more »

3 reasons why Nicki Minaj: The Empire is...

Nicki Minaj is as business-savvy as she is musically talented and she’s proved that by launching her own game. Designed by Glu, purveyors of other fine celebrity games like cult favorite Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, Nicki Minaj: The Empire launched... | Read more »

Clash of Clans is getting its own animat...

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Leaks hint at Pokémon GO and Starbucks C...

Leaked images from a hub for Starbucks employees suggests that a big Pokémon GO event with the coffee giant could begin this very week. The images appeared on Reddit and hint at some exciting new things to come for Niantic's smash hit game.
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Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

12-inch Retina MacBooks, Apple refurbished, n...

Apple has restocked a full line of Certified Refurbished 2016 12″ Retina MacBooks, now available for $200-$260 off MSRP. Refurbished 2015 models are available starting at $929. Apple will include a... Read more

Apple has Certified Refurbished 13″ MacBook Airs available starting at $849. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each MacBook, and shipping is free:
- 13″ 1.6GHz/8GB/128GB MacBook Air: $849 $... Read more

Apple refurbished iMacs available for up to $...

Apple has Certified Refurbished 2015 21″ & 27″ iMacs available for up to $350 off MSRP. Apple’s one-year warranty is standard, and shipping is free. The following models are available:
- 21″ 3.... Read more

Apple’s Education discount saves up to $300 o...

Purchase a new Mac or iPad using Apple’s Education Store and take up to $300 off MSRP. All teachers, students, and staff of any educational institution qualify for the discount. Shipping is free:
-... Read more

Back in stock: Apple refurbished Mac minis fr...

Apple has Certified Refurbished Mac minis available starting at $419. Apple’s one-year warranty is included with each mini, and shipping is free:
- 1.4GHz Mac mini: $419 $80 off MSRP
- 2.6GHz Mac... Read more

Twenty-Five Years Of Apple Laptops – A person...

Among many other things, the often tumultuous 16th year of the new century marked the 25th anniversary of Apple laptop computers, not counting the optimistically named 16-pound Mac Portable of 1989.... Read more

Landlordy iOS App Adds Support For Appliances...

Riga, Latvia based E-protect SIA is releasing major update (version 1.8) to its Landlordy app for managing rental business financials on the go. Landlordy is iPhone and iPad app designed for self-... Read more

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